By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 7 - Chapter 28

Chapter 5 Episode 28: Bad Timing

“Sweet!”

The next day, I was shaking with excitement early in the morning. Incredibly, I’d woken up to find that one of the sticky slimes had evolved! Casting Appraisal, I was greeted with this info:

Latex Slime

Skills: Mucus Production 6, Harden 1, Fusion 1, Physical Attack Resistance 2, Jump 1, Consume 4, Absorption 4, Split 3

What was I looking at...? Evidently, it was a “latex slime.” The word “latex” immediately brought to mind the white, sticky substance secreted from rubber trees. In fact, the slime seemed to be the spitting image of latex itself. I had been feeding this slime Dante’s Stalk. Latex, i.e. the ingredient itself as used to make rubber, was mostly taken from rubber trees, but it could be secreted from other plants, most notably the dandelion. Dante shared some similarities with dandelions on Earth. While I couldn’t be sure until I performed some experiments, I thought it most likely that the slime would act exactly like the latex I expected. There was a good chance I could make rubber out of this slime’s excretion.

Unfortunately, the ability of the slime itself had drastically fallen. Compared to when it was a sticky slime, its Physical Attack Resistance, Consume, and Absorption went up a level, but Jump dropped 2 levels. Strong Sticky Solution, Hardening Solution, Sticky String Shot, Staff Mastery, and Seed Sowing are all completely gone...

I’d never seen anything like this happen before. Was this evolution an outlier, or was that the case for all of the others I’d seen so far? Was it normal for their abilities to fluctuate and even change over evolution? The latex slime, in any case, had evolved from a gelatin-like sticky slime. Maybe because it had gained more water mass; I couldn’t tell for sure.

At any rate, this was the first one that had evolved to a latex slime. I’m gonna need more data and research...!

Some time had passed since I found out that a portion of the sticky slimes preferred Dante’s Stalk. It was possible that the amount of latex in the stalk was minuscule, which gave them only a small amount per meal...

“Good morning, Master Takebayashi.”

Wait, was it already late enough in the morning to have visitors?

“Master Takebayashi?”

“Uh, good morning! Please, come in!” I called through the door, and Lulunese quietly came in.

“Good morning. Breakfast is ready... Is something the matter?”

“No, not at all. One of my slimes evolved, and I kinda lost track of time examining it. I’ll be out soon.” Sadly, I would have to wait until after breakfast to resume studying this slime...

I quickly prettied myself up and came down for breakfast.

“You look delighted this morning.” Reinhart started.

“Perhaps something serendipitous happened to him,” his wife added.

“Knowing Ryoma, it’s gotta be something to do with slimes,” said Pioro.

“Perhaps one of them has evolved?”

They totally saw through me... Was I really that easy to read? “You’d be correct. One of my sticky slimes evolved into a latex slime.”

“Latex slime... Another new species?” Reinhart asked.

Elise answered in part, “It’s not a common advanced species, at the very least.”

“Can this one do anything special?”

“It only secretes mucus for now, but if this mucus is the substance I think it is, it could be a ubiquitous material for all sorts of things.” I wondered if rubber existed in this world. Come to think of it, I couldn’t recall seeing anything made out of rubber here, even though I’d encountered some things that felt rubbery to the touch, like an armor made of grell frog hide...

I shared my curiosity with the group, and Serge spoke up. “If I may... I believe you are talking about gwum, Master Ryoma.” He told me about a port at the end of the continent to the far south; beyond the port was a cluster of islands. By sailing for a month or two, stopping at those islands along the way for supplies, one would reach another continent. Unlike the one we were on, the climate there was tropical, with temperate weather and an entirely different culture. Rubber trees did like high temperature and humidity, after all.

“Gwum is exactly as you’ve described, Master Ryoma—a type of hardened sap. I’ve heard that this land is ripe with such trees. However, the continent has placed an embargo on both the tree and its sap. There is almost no chance we could find any of it here.”

I remembered how rubber trees would only grow near the Amazon river, and once its utility was recognized and people started calling it “black gold,” Britain held a monopoly on it for a while... The likelihood that gwum and rubber were the same thing climbed further.

“That said, I don’t think that material is as useful as you seem to think, Master Ryoma...”

“Really?”

“It can be made into children’s toys, simple containers, and used to waterproof fabric, if I recall, but it is not a durable substance; it is prone to melting or tearing.”

Wait a minute... That sounded like natural, raw latex. Were they not adding any sulfur or carbon? People only figured out how useful rubber was after they figured out how to vulcanize it... And that drove its price up and led to a monopoly. And yet in this world, it’s already monopolized without any good use for it? Something didn’t seem right; I said as much to them.

“The people of that continent have an important use of gwum rooted in their culture, so most of their supply seems to be dedicated to that.”

I’d just realized that Serge was skirting around what that use was, exactly... Was it wise to keep asking?

“Considering your age... Well, with your knowledge in medicine, Master Ryoma, I’m sure you are already aware of this use, as well as its necessity. But let us speak of it after breakfast,” he concluded and we enjoyed small talk for the rest of the meal.

■ ■ ■

After breakfast, I asked Serge what he was talking about as he was leaving, and he simply stated, “Contraception.”

“Oh, that explains it...” It certainly would have been tactless to talk about that over breakfast, let alone in Elise’s presence.

“The people of that continent are quite sexually open; there are villages around the continent that have their own culture of polygamy, in any combination. Many regions see the act itself as a rite to adulthood, as well. I once traveled across the sea in my younger days, following an adventurous impulse, and I was certainly taken aback by the difference in culture. Both men and women wore much less clothing than we do, and out in the countryside, many walked around the streets practically naked.”

Many myths on Earth were sexual in nature too. I wasn’t all that surprised to learn a place like that existed. Of course, with sexual liberty came certain risks.

“They would engage in intimacy much more frequently, in addition to any rituals that involved it. I’ve heard that, back in the day, there were many issues caused by it. Diseases, for one, and women bearing children through their maturing rite. With the use of gwum contraception, those issues have died down. Unfortunately, some who don’t understand their culture describe the southern people as savages. But, at the very least, they have better awareness and knowledge when it comes to sexually transmitted diseases and contraception.”

In this nation, contraception was mostly done through medicine, for both sexes. If the drug was of poor quality or used incorrectly, the side effects weren’t pretty. On the other hand, gwum contraceptives were much safer, and they were even being exported here as a luxury item for nobles.

“I see...” There were some diverse cultures in this world. It was quite interesting to hear stories of other countries.

Then, Serge asked me a question. “Is this ‘rubber’ you mentioned something similar, Master Ryoma?”

“They’re both made from the same latex, I believe. You can think of rubber as gwum which is processed for wider applications.”

Serge made an intrigued sound, and I asked if the embargo in the south would be an issue. “The embargo only applies to exporting the tree or its seeds from the southern continent; it has no bearing on how you use the mucus of a slime in this continent.”

Looks like I was in the clear to start experimenting. “I’ll see if I can make rubber out of latex slime mucus, then.”

“Please let me know if you have any other questions I may be able to answer. I’m looking forward to seeing the end result.”

I thanked the smiling Serge for indulging me, and parted ways.

Now, let’s get cracking! I wondered if I could get some lamons if I stopped by the kitchen. If not, I was sure that diluting the acid of an acid slime could help me make organic rubber. That much, I could multitask with the sugar scrub research before noon. But what about the sulfur I needed to adjust its durability and resilience...? I could extract carbon from coal, but maybe I’d have to resort to alchemy in order to—

“Master Takebayashi!” A maid stopped me in my tracks in a rather frantic manner.

“Good morning. Is something wrong?”

“Something about the pond by the wedding venue... I was told to find you as quickly as possible.”

“Pond...? I wonder what that could mean. Thanks, I’ll head over there now. Oh, but before I go, could you tell Miss Libiola that I’m going to check on the venue? This might take a while.”

“Understood, sir.”

After her confirmation, I turned toward the venue. What was going on?

■ ■ ■

Just as the venue came into view in the distance through the trees... Something was off. Something damp and rank, unlike anything I had ever smelled before, invaded my nostrils on the wings of a gentle breeze. Like some sort of rotten vegetation...

The smell intensified with every step I took toward the venue. Soon, I came to a reddened lake and a crowd gathered at the edge of it, composed of the leaders of each department involved in the wedding, as well as Reinhart and Elise.

“Sorry I took so long!”

“Hey, Ryoma. Good to see you,” answered Bahtz, the head chef, with a very concerned expression.

“What happened to the lake?”

The man who had attended the meetings as a representative of the gardeners pointed to something.

“See for yourself.”

A plant with string-thin roots, adorned with sea-grape-like bunches; it was a brighter shade of red than the lake water, with the same pungent stink coming from it. Not exactly the sort of vegetation you’d want growing in your backyard.

“It’s a water plant called a venoblum. This thing stores up nutrients through spring, summer, and fall, before multiplying like crazy on a winter’s day. It happens every year, but looks like they had an early season.”

“They couldn’t have waited a few more days...?”

“Are they really going to get married with this thing around...?”

I could hear some concerned murmurs from the crowd, and I couldn’t blame them. The blood-red lake looked like something out of a cheesy horror movie poster, and it wasn’t doing wonders in terms of juxtaposition for the church I’d built, either; it’d probably look derelict next to this scenery. Worst of all, who would want to eat with this rotten stench stinging their nostrils?

“Can’t we do anything about it?”

“We can block off the water at its source and drain the lake. Getting rid of all of the venoblum after that would get everything back to normal. But just draining the water alone would take me a whole day. I’d need at least five days to get everything back to normal, including the river flow.”

The wedding would either have to go on under these circumstances or be postponed. Disappointment seeped through the crowd upon hearing the expert opinion. But I still had hope.

“I think we can still pull this off. I’ve got a cunning plan.” All eyes were fixated on me. And among them, only Reinhart and Elise seemed to clue into what that cunning plan was.

“Let me guess, Ryoma. Slimes, right? Not like there’s much else you can use, is there?”

“Bingo.”

The gardener had estimated five days of work to drain the lake, remove the vegetation, and restore the water, if performed by manpower alone and in that order. What if I made slimes take in the water, the plants, and any other grime that was left? What if I used a whole flood of slimes? That was likely to save us some time, at the very least. We were still within the Duke’s residence too. Everyone here was an old member who had served the dukedom for ages, which meant I could trust them. They wouldn’t share my secret even if I let out slimes bigger than big.

“Dimension Home.” First off, I called out three king scavenger slimes that I had enlarged.

“Whoa!”

“What are those gigantic slimes?!”

“They’re too big to even be big slimes... He’s contracted big slimes?”

As the confused workers watched in shock, I ordered the slimes to go into the lake. The king scavenger slimes slowly sank into the water, proceeding to the center of the lake and making large waves. While the lake had a large surface area, it was shallow enough for the top of the king scavenger slimes to remain over the water as they slithered on the bottom, which would still be seven feet or so.

“Put a little more distance between you... That’ll do! Now keep your bodies flat, so you have more surface area...”

Activate Gluttony!

The water above the slimes began to ripple until small whirls appeared. “The slimes seem fine, so I’ll make them take in the water and plants in the lake.”

“Will it be ready by the ceremony tomorrow, Ryoma?”

“I won’t know until it’s done, but I have a lot more slimes where they came from. I’ll leave the lake to the king scavengers. I’ll take care of things upstream and downstream with other slimes to get this done. Nothing’s impossible if you just give it a try!”

“Not sure I follow, but I’ll go and close the watergate upstream!”

“Then let’s move ahead with decorations as planned...under the assumption that the ceremony will take place tomorrow!”

The eyes of Bahtz, the gardener, and the other team leaders lit up again. Though I wouldn’t have any time today for research thanks to this, Hughes and Lulunese were more important to me. Cleaning and deodorizing were my specialties! Ultimately, the process continued late into the night...